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This International Haven is for Enthusiasts of Flight Simulation, Especially those interested in creating their own photoscenery, orthoscenery, Aircraft Re-paints or Missions who are looking for a friendly, Informative clubhouse atmosphere.

Making Photoscenery for X-Plane 11

Being a recent purchaser of X plane ( i will not say convert, yet) i wanted to see how one could make photosceneryCurrently there are 2 programs available that enable one to do this, G2XPL and Ortho4xpI Must point out that the following observations that I will make now are based on very little time with each program but at least I have succeeded in creating photoscenery of my region with both products

It has to be pointed out from the beginning that neither program is click/install and use, but I suppose neither is FS Earth tiles which we use for doing the same job in FSX/P3D however FSET as i recall was a lot easier to get started in (ok I did have to lean on a few friends shoulders for help) and once you were away you could then up the complication to make the sea shores look more realistic, and sea, as well adding autogen.

I started with G2xpl by recommendation and not being the sharpest pencil in the pack I struggled! However after reading the manual (well written by our own Jaydor) and with much help from Jaydor via skype i did manage to get it installed

Why is it the programs written by computer minded people defy logic or common sense????

the main differences is that the programs for XP use much larger tiles than we do with FSET especially if you use LOD13 sized tiles

with g2xpl you draw a polygon around an object set the level of definition you want say 17 which computes to around 1 or 2 in fset, and it will then scan the whole tile creating an image where the polygon is at high definition and the rest of the tile at much lower definition. This is ideal for those that want an airport and its surronding area in HD whilst the counrty around is blurry or lower quality . this is much as I have done in the past with FSET I would get a payware airport of high quality and scan the nearbye area so that as you descended lower the scenery became alive.

However you can either draw the polygon to be the size of the tile and download the whole tile at High definition or you can draw the polygon around the airport and then tell the config file to scan the remainder of the tile at the same HD level.

The images come from much the same places as the FSET ones do , however the colour of the images in XP appear less strong or washed out, this iis something I am looking into so dont have an answer for the moment

The main problem with using G2XPL is that it creates rivers where there were perhaps gulleys or dry water courses and all rivers are jagged in shape and do not look at all realistic. I am informed there is a fix or a program to address this , but the images made with this program do detract fromthe immersion because of this fault.

Feeling a bit frustrated with G2XPL I decided to try ortho4xp which seems to be a more popular program used by the majority of the community.The installation was even less user friendly than G2xpl and it took me several attempts following many videos on you tube before I actually managed to end up with a program that would work, some of the videos were unbelievably complicated , after watching several as being the only correct installations i tumbled on a video by an Englishman that bypassed all the bullshit and he made it look easy, I had spent more than a week following other peoples videos to the letter with no luck!

Ortho as I will call it also downloads the same large tiles and you can also create a polygon in the tile where the polygon is of higher definition (i havent even gone there yet!!) but the end result is that the images it makes do show the proper rivers not something that looks like a lightning strike! my problem is that with ortho I could not get it to use google (incorrect server number???) so resorted to BING which made good images ,sadly though the center of Perpignan is blurred out ( the barracks of the foreign legion) and this stands out like a sore thumb as one approaches the airport directly over this area on short final. So it is back to the blackboard.

Autogen is installed by XP using a level from OSM which you can choose to not activate if using photoscenery , it does not detract from the experience if used in a region that one is not familiar with, however change to clock to dusk or night and fly over a city/airport and I defy any simmer not to be totally blown away, it is so superior to fsx/p3d , you can see cars on the roads , traffic lights, police cars with blue flashing lights , airports also look massively better also with much more realistic lighting.

One problem with both these programs is that whan you are choosing an area to download , you cannot zoom into the area to confirm the quality of the image (as you can in FSET) , it may well be possible , but so far I havent found out how, so you need to download a tile quickly at low res to confirm the quality before the main image.

In short neither of these programs is perfect they both have room for improvement, and the same can be said of X-Plane , however there is a very large update for XP due in the very near future which will make many changes including improving performance and many other issues, and perhaps it is this that makes me lean toward XP as the future of our hobby , they publicly acknowledge faults and fixes and keep the community well informed of what they are doing , where they are going, when they can expect updates, whereas LM with P3d keep it a dark secret and progress is painfully slow.

I shall hopefull post regular updates as I learn more and get more au fait with both these progs, and if you can add info that will reduce my ignorance feel free to post below

This makes very interesting reading as an amateur photo scenery maker but just goes to show us that the Italian guy who put FSET together was light years ahead of anyone else at the time. Thanks for sharing your experiences with the members and good luck with future scenery. Cheers Mike.

The jagged rivers are nothing to do with G2XPL as the program only downloads the photo image. The rivers are then added as an overlay by X-Plane. So you are maybe a little bit unfair to blame G2XPL. There appears to be a problem with your X-Plane, as see the images below as regards to rivers.

Somewhere in the world is a young chap or chapess maybe still at school, who is destained to stumble into X-Plane and produce a fantastic tool to make photo scenery for X-Plane. Until then we have to use what is out there. I have to admit I get no trouble from G2XPL and am quite satisfied with the results. More realistic than Ortho4XP. I have been doing the western States of the US and find no problem with rivers etc.,